Hindsight is always 20/20. For all the controversy and deliberation about an artist around their current release, looking back in five, ten, or 25 years often clears up any confusion (more…)
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to our RSS feed
Check out the video for No No from the brilliant & bubbly Miss Baby Sol. Guaranteed to make you smile
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to our RSS feed
This month we’ve been on a bit of a retro kick. They don’t make them like they used to. Or do they? So many songs, be they pop, rap, electronic music or otherwise, have sampled some great tunes of old. Often the Producer uses sampling as a nod to their influences and inspirations, and is looking to add a modern twist to a classic riff or hook. With the help of our favourite music streaming service, Spotify, we created a playlist that will hopefully entertain and educate, with some classic disco, funk and soul songs that have recognisable pieces sampled by recent artists.
Click the image below or check out http://open.spotify.com/user/leejarvis/playlist/5T0FFqQt4TT4VsWyWYUTCN
Tracklisting:
Quincy Jones – Soul Bossa Nova
Sampled by Dream Warriors in My Definition of a Boombastic Jazz style
Kool and the Gang – Summer Madness
Sampled by: Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince in Summertime
James Brown – Funky Drummer
Sampled by Public Enemy in Fight The Power
Bootsy Collins – I’d Rather Be With You
Sampled by Adina Howard in Freak Like Me
Rick James – SuperFreak
Sampled by MC Hammer in You Can’t Touch This
Daryll Hall & John Oates – I Can’t Go For That
Sampled by De La Soul in Say No Go
Labi Siffre – I Got The
Sampled by Eminem in My Name Is
Chaka Kahn – Fate
Sampled by Stardust in Music Sounds Better With You
Carol Williams – Love Is You
Sampled by Spiller in Groovejet
O’Jays – Backstabber
Sampled by Angie Stone in Wish I Didn’t Miss You
Enjoy!
by The Music Jobs team.
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to our RSS feed
I’m on the blower with Miss Baby Sol, a little Londoner with quite spectacular hair. Think Baby Spice meets Blaxploitation and you’ve got the look.
At 27 Sol‘s at bit of a music industry veteran. She started singing into a Dictaphone that her mum (who was, along with her father in a band) at the age of about three, in the process erasing some of her mum’s melodies and a new track. I’m unsure whether that made her a child prodigy, or simply a precocious brat, but either way, I’m glad she pursued it, as the EP that she’s just released really is quite something.
The EP is called Before I Begin The Journey, and it’s Sol growing up on disc. She describes creating the record as self-therapy, a form of catharsis that she needed to go through before embarking on the next stage of her life, both professionally and personally. It’s quite a raw record, touching on Rwandan genocide and, more personally, the death of her mother who, Sol tells me, held everything together for her, her sister and her nephew.
There are more upbeat tracks on the record, including Tick-Tock, a song that evokes images of a chilled bourbon on a late summer’s eve, sitting watching the sunset over a prairie, making plans for the future. It’s apt that this is the image that it brings to your mind’s eye, so tells me that it was written after she’d ditched her job to focus on her music, and she was feeling a mixture of elation at quitting the nine-to-five, but depression that a regular income, and guaranteed bread on the table, had disappeared. She was inspired and encouraged to write the song by MOBO Award winner Jnay, who she counts as a close friend. Music is in Sol’s blood, and she says that without the opportunity to express herself through it, she’d be “Even more of a nutter than I already am!”.
Sol has cut her teeth with some acclaimed artists. She’s provided backing vocals for, amongst others, Michelle Escoffrey, Amy Winehouse and Alexander O’Neal. Currently she’s part of Paloma Faith’s team. Paloma, she say’s has been nothing but supportive, and doesn’t want to clip her wings. But Sol considers Paloma family, and wants “To be there with her on her journey”.
As far as her journey is concerned, Sol admits there isn’t really much of a map. She says that she’s “Simply throwing out into the universe and hoping that it takes me somewhere”, and she’s genuinely not stressed about getting a deal right here, right now. For her, the creation of Before I Begin The Journey is not about securing commercial success, but about exercising her creative side and saying what she needs to say before beginning to focus more on what the market and the industry want. Think of this as a final act of indulgence on her part. She says that “The focus should be the music and the art; not what you can gain from it, but for what you produce from your heart. That’s very much at the core of my ethos as an artist.”
There are plans for a couple of singles, primarily so Sol can have fun with the music, as she says “I want the chance to look pretty in a video of my own!” But take this Baby seriously, she’s more grown-up than she looks. We’re expecting big things from the little lady with the giant hair.
http://twitter.com/MissBabySol
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to our RSS feed
Maybe it’s the wintry, dark evenings, maybe it’s the whisky, but this January we seem to have been on a soul music kick. New albums such as Charles Bradley’s ‘No Time For Dreaming’ lean heavily on the sounds of the past, and that set the motion for a soul-fuelled Spotify playlist from the Music Jobs Team.
Click the image below or check out http://open.spotify.com/user/leejarvis/playlist/3FFxv5uOUsWxp8firWKs4j
Tracklist
Otis Redding – I Need Your Lovin
James Brown – It’s a Man’s World
Teddy Pendergrass – Love TKO
Harold Melvin & The Bluenotes – Wake Up Everybody
The Trammps – Stop and Think
The Miracles, Billy Griffin – Love Machine
Booker T & the MGs – Soul Man
Aretha Franklin – Dr Feelgood
Ella Fitzgerald – You’ve Changed
The Delfonics – Ready or Not Here I Come
Patti Labelle & The Bluebells – Groovy Kind of Love
Rose Royce – Wishin on a Star
Al Green – Look What You’ve Done To Me
Enjoy!
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to our RSS feed
Kelli is a professional songstress, she gigs, backs and does session work for any number of people, including Blaze Blackheart, (an artist we featured on this blog last month), and teaches youngsters to sing.
Her most lucrative work to date has been with the High on Heels tour. Which takes a collective of uber- talented female musicians, DJs and vocalists and sends them to perform at gigs and corporate events around the world. Kelli’s been incredibly fortunate over the past year to have had the opportunity to visit a massive number of countries, both near and far. The high point being a trip to Macau, where Chinese new money paid for the girls to live in high style for the duration of their trip, returning home to Croydon happened, said Kelli, “With a bit of a bump”.
And it’s that bump which she might just be able to avoid in future. She’s just engaged the services of a new manager, and is making serious moves to launch her solo career. Since the spring she’s been spending hours holed up with her guitarist and writing partner Kier Moore, and has developed a impressive set of tracks that show off her spectacular vocal range. Her voice lends itself to a range of styles, from Ibizaesque dance (she’s been mistaken, vocally and visually for Kelly Rowland) to hip-hop flavours, and I’ve seen her perform them all. But without a doubt, her dulcet tones are most suited to the rock/funk fusion that she’s currently performing.
Right now she’s trying her best to get noticed by the industry, and believe me when I say it’s working, but what she wants is to be recognised as an artist who’s not running with the rest of the pack. Vocally, she’s got the grit of Alexandra Burke and a range that could rival Whitney (pre “troubles”). However Kelli’s lyrics also stick out from the crowd, her music, most of which she’s either written or co-written, is authentic, soulful, empowering. It’s spirit, if not its sound, is evocative of early Mary J Blige.
She does without a lot of the modern accoutrements that have allowed so much of today’s “talent” to become successful, it’s her and her band. It’s the sort of music that could have been made in an age before the advent of the mobile phone, and it’s all the stronger for it.
I’m of the opinion that anyone can play a stadium, but that it takes true talent to win over an intimate venue, and Kelli’s voice, and the strength of her material, allow her to do just that.
She’s fortunate to have a supremely talented & loyal band made up of some of the UK’s finest session musicians. You can see from her performances just how tight they are, and how much faith they have in Kelli, and this translates into a performance that’s nothing short of spine-tingling. It also means that she never has (and she hopes she never will) end up on stage with a backing track, these performances are about as real as you’ll find.
This year has seen quite a change for Kelli. Before 2010 she was performing with Butchered Beats, a fusion of collective that focussed on dance, soul, chill, jazz and funk. Since then she’s given herself “a kick up the bum” and has developed her website www.kellileigh.com and those tracks I’ve been talking about. Right now she’s working on perfecting the recordings of the three newest tracks in her repository, Dicmatised, Caught by the Reins and the soaring I Am Here, a lyrical excuse me to the music industry, but evoking feelings we can all relate to. One of these is likely to be her debut single, and she’s testing the water with each of them at various showcases and events.
Trust us when we say Kelli-Leigh is one to watch, And you don’t need to take our humble word for it. Raj Rudolph of influential music blog Electroqueer has been plugging Kelli on his blog, and (Boy) George O’Dowd has also given her a boost through Twitter. Were that not enough, Kelli has been providing backing vocals for the magnificent Adele, herself a lady who takes music back to it’s roots, at The Royal Variety Performance, various UK & European TV appearances and Radio 1 Live Lounge. Listen out for the backing vocals on live performances of Rolling in the Deep to hear Kelli in action.
http://soundcloud.com/kellileigh/i-am-here-full-band-mix-by-kelli-leigh-and-keir-moore
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to our RSS feed
2010 has been another fantastic year for British musicians. With such a wealth of talent cropping up, we thought we’d pay tribute to some of our favourite songs of recent times in a Music Jobs Team playlist via Spotify.
Click the image below or check out http://open.spotify.com/user/leejarvis/playlist/1HxyEvzmRLI4bWhWGiavCU
Tracklist:
We Have Band – You Came Out
Friendly Fires – Photobooth
Jamie T – Stick n Stones
Crystal Fighters – I Love London
Mark Ronson – God Put A Smile On Your Face
La Roux – In For The Kill (Skream remix)
Lily Allen – Smile
VV Brown – Game Over
Duffy – Stepping Stone
Frankmusik – 3 Little Words
Little Boots – Meddle
Dan Black – U + Me =
Pixie Lott – Mama Do
Mika – Grace Kelly
Calvin Harris – I’m Not Alone
Scouting For Girls – This Aint A Love Song
Adele – Chasing Pavements
Florence and the Machine – Dog Days are Over
As a special addition, we have also included two tracks from two of our own Music Jobs Team! Anna, vocal starlet of My Tiger My Timing, and our resident electronic producer Lee Jarvis both have a number of songs on Spotify. We chose…
My Tiger My Timing – I Am The Sound
Lee Jarvis – All I Need
Enjoy!
The Music Jobs Team.
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to our RSS feed
We offer many ways to showcase and interact here at UK Music Jobs, and I thought I’d cover a little about sharing your music around the website, as well as featuring recent music added by some of our most active members.
As well as from appearing on your profile, recently added mp3s are also featured on our front page and all the key UK Music Jobs site pages – if you contribute regularly you are more likely to attract attention and earn new fans.
The members I have featured below are all fine examples of the value of keeping your profile up to date – adding mp3s, photos, videos, press cuttings and more will make your profile easy to search and attractive to other users and employers to read. Regularly adding info and media means that I am more likely to find you in our network – next time it could be your music shared here and across the UK Music Jobs online profiles!
UK Music Jobs member: Anna Burton
Recommended Listening: And Dance (Indie)
|
UK Music Jobs member: Rebecca Hayes
Recommended Listening: From my chillout album Xemplify (Chill Out)
|
UK Music Jobs member: Simon James
Recommended Listening: Wait For The Summer (Rock/Pop)
|
UK Music Jobs member: Mike Hawkins
Recommended Listening: Guitar+BV’s: Tell The Blues I’ve Gone – The Flip Flays (Pop)
|
UK Music Jobs member: Christopher Ransome
Recommended Listening: Stay – New track with Fear No Fish…. (Rock)
|
UK Music Jobs member: Sulene Fleming
Recommended Listening: Stand Up (Dance)
|
UK Music Jobs member: Jason Carter
Recommended Listening: One (Flamenco)
|
UK Music Jobs member: Sandra Dangelo
Recommended Listening: Sandra Dangelo songwriting singing (Electronica)
|
If you would like to be featured in future UK Music Jobs blog posts, then update your profile regularly and leave a message on my profile wall (another feature that you should use for networking – look out for a future blog post!)
Lee Jarvis.
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to our RSS feed
I’ve covered a bit recently on AC/DC dropping iTunes because of Apple’s requirement to sell album tracks individually and the band’s belief that this is wrong. Well, assuming that you aren’t a rock supergroup that can strike up a great physical distribution deal, iTunes could be on your list of download sites, and using it to sell your records, possibly through a digital distributor, could be a great way to boost your digital sales. A site that has sold over 5 billion songs cannot be ignored.
For a start, no-one makes as much noise in the technology scene as Apple. Their keynotes and conferences attract huge interest and will be live-blogged a hundred times over. Even when they announce some relatively small changes to the iPods and iTunes, people are engrossed. A large number of people WORSHIP iTunes, and the brand is recognisable to millions of computer users worldwide. Additional plus sides of this instant recognition, are ease of use and trust. Unless you make it as easy as possible for people to download your music within seconds, their attention wavers, it’s the way of the Digi-world. An online store that I’ve not heard of, where I have to set up a new account, find a confirmation email and add payment details is going to be a drag to some people, whilst asking me to purchase a track from Bob-a-Job’s download store makes me think twice about my credit details being safe. It may not be the right way to think, but we are talking about the masses here.
Marketing your sounds alongside similar sounds will help to increase sales from browsing music buyers. For instance, if you make smooth, soulful grooves, then a page on your website listing your favourite artists such as D’Angelo, Erykah Badu, Maxwell and Raphael Saadiq will help fans of those stumble across your sounds. Applying this theory to iTunes, the new Genius Sidebar will list you alongside similar artists. If you are considered by to be of the same ilk when users submit their library and playlist information, then it will suggest your music to fans of these artists. It (mostly) works too. This can be a great promotion tool, and potentially reaches a huge number of fans of your style.
Where AC/DC differed, is that they have a hardcore fan base that they’ve established over 30 years of world tours. They are ‘old-school’ in that sense, so an old school physical deal and mass advertising worked for them. Most artists will not be able to follow the AC/DC route, and it would not be in your wisest interests to. To re-emphasise the point of my last post, the important thing is to be aware of these strategies and why they work. The iTunes path may or may not be the best one for your style / core group of fans / marketing abilities, again, I’m just throwing it out there for you to chew over. Selling your own CDs is another route that i will cover very soon. Being aware that all different ideas could succeed, means that you will recognise a good opportunity when you work your way into it.
Lee Jarvis
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to our RSS feed
Joe Driscoll is causing quite a sensation on both sides of the Atlantic with his unique sound, brilliant lyrics and stonking live sets. Mixing together threads of hip-hop, reggae, soul, folk and roots rock, Joe is doing his own thing and doing it with style. The worthy recipient of the Indy Award for ‘Best Solo Act Of The Year’ Joe’s star is set to rise even higher with appearances at Glastonbury and The Secret Garden Party in the coming months.
We were lucky enough to meet Joe at a small set he performed in London a few months back and not only do we think he’s one of the best new talents around he’s also a incredibly charming, nice guy to boot!
UK Music Jobs intrepid Lee Jarvis sat down with Joe to ask him how things are going and what he thinks of the music industry at the moment.
When did you first get into music / singing / playing guitar?
That’s kind of what inspired Origin Myths, my last album. When I was ridiculously young, like 5 or something I was listening to John Lennon singing and told my mom thats what I was gonna do when I grew up. Been singing as far back as my memory goes, musical theater by age 8 or 9, playing guitar by 10 or so. The guitar was way bigger than me when i started.
You grew up on the east coast of the US, right? What music did you listen to growing up? Who were your early influences?
Beatles and an old Bob Marley tape I found. My brother turned me on to hip-hop, mainly De La Soul and Tribe Called Quest. 3 feet high and People’s Instinctive Paths were unbelievably influential in early years. Wu-Tang and Rage Against the Machine held it down for a long time. Ani Difranco and the Beastie Boys are ever present.
Where are you based at the moment? – it seems like you are permanantly on tour!
Yeah, in my song Nomad I say I live in my heart my head and 10,000 houses. Yeah, always on tour, but lately been slowing it up a bit. Brixton is where I find my rest now.
When i saw you live in London, i think i described your sound as a very relaxed kind of sound, the kind of sound you expect from the west coast, or even a hawaiian sort of vibe. But then certain songs obviously have an east coast hip hop flavour and reggae sounds, all the time with the kind of story telling associated with American folk songs. Fair to say that you are a mixed bag?! Do you think this has a lot to do with your broad success in so many countries with so many different kinds of fans?
Yes, definetly. Thats what has always turned me on most about music, is the bridges it gaps. I’ve played purist folk shows, and purist hip-hop shows and gotten amazing reactions from both. I grew loving music that could do that; make everybody groove regardless of classification. I live for music that transcends, so I love when thats what turns people on about my stuff.
And you were the headlining Live act at the Malawi Lake of Stars Festival in ’07, that must have been one helluva gig. Did that further influence your music making / lyric writing?
Yes, spending time in Africa is one of those experiences that goes beyond words. It was incredibly mind expanding, and I just want to figure out how to spend more time there. The rhythm is completely different over there, and I absorbed so much. I want to go back!
Your live show is very unique too, how did you create / develop it? It’s almost like a jam session, with yourself as several band members, would you say that’s accurate or do you have a description you like to use? Would you say that songs sound different each time you perform them – do you add new elements while you’re jamming away?
Yes, thats pretty accurate. Being that all the loops are chopped live, there are always slight (or sometimes major) differences. I like that alot. To quote The Chairman Of The Board : “I never play the same song twice.”
What about the equipment you use live, the loop sampler / trigger pedals – were you looking for some sort of technology to help you since you perform on your own, or are you a technology geek?
Wow! So funny, I’m about the furthest thing from a technology geek! I wish I was one! I had never owned a computer before, and hardly ever played electric guitar when I found it. No, a producer I was working with was making loops of my beatbox in his computer and we started to discuss live possibilities. We went to the guitar shop, I pulled out the pedal, and chopped up a pretty good Wu-Tang Clan Aint Nothing to F*$@ With right there. I had them wrap it up and spent the next 3 months composing in my room.
Even though you are a “modern one-man band”, is there anyone you’d like to work / record / perform with?
Loads. I am actually currently collaborating with a crew called the One Taste Collective- http://www. youtube. com/watch?v=ZGvA5hAXd0Y. I love the solo show, but expect to see alot more cross pollenation from me in the coming year!
You’ve won an Indy Music Award, and sold out shows both sides of the atlantic, yet people can still catch you at an intimate bar gig too. This is obviously your passion and you love performing? Could you see yourself doing anything else / if you weren’t a musician what would you be doing?
No doubt I’d be teaching. I used to volunteer doing after school music shops. I love inspiring the youth, and passing along culture. I will definetly end up in some form of teaching later in my life when touring and recording schedules slow up a bit.
Tell us about your previous albums.
Well, as the solo loop artist I released Little Beat BIg and Life As A Monkey, which were both live albums. I’m still proud of Life As A Monkey, but there is only so much you can do live. Origin Myths was my first studio thing, and that was a huge step for me. After that I put out a project called Local Principles, which was more straightforward hip-hop with old samples and drum loops. I never used to get inspired in the studio, cause I was so used to the live rush and energy. Nowadays, it is my passion and I’m just loving the craft of making quality albums.
Do you think that the whole advent of music downloads and myspace is good for music and musicians? Do you see this growing even more in the near future?
Yes and no, it’s evolution and devolution simultaneously; like most human progress. Every artist on myspace will tell you how much it has helped them, from getting fan mail from holland and fiji, to getting gigs in france, it is great. People can type your name in, and in seconds hear what you do and make direct contact. However, it has flooded the waves of communication with people that don’t really have talent or anything to say. It has kind of muddled the laws of supply and demand, in both the spiritual and fiscal sense. I’m glad thousands of people get my music for free, but I also wish I had ten pounds for everyone of those downloads as well so artists could recieve the kind of pay they deserve. I love the internet as much as I hate. It’s just the new battleground of life, so whether it’s good or bad is what we make it. And yes, it will be even more so in the future.
What about your plans for the near future? More touring? Back in the studio?
Studio studio. I love performing, but it’s two different head spaces. I’ll be doing the festival circuit this summer, but in a more relaxed vibe than hardcore touring. Hardcore touring probably commence in the fall, or upon completion of new recordings.
What about further down the line – do you aspire to be involved in the music industry in any other ways? Record Label? A&R? Or is the beatboxing / singing / rapping / bass / guitar / harmonica enough for you?!
Yeah, like I said- One Taste Collective– http://www. youtube. com/watch?v=ZGvA5hAXd0Y. I’m trying to start up a new label now for a batch of releases, then enshallah- global domination. Or at least a couple of shweet tours. 
There will never be enough!
Check out Joe’s MySpace - http://www.myspace.com/joedriscoll
Lee Jarvis.
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to our RSS feed
© Copyright 2012 Music Jobs Ltd | design by Jackfruit 
